The present invention relates to electronic cameras generally called digital cameras for electronically recording images picked up by an image pick-up device on a recording medium and, more particularly, to improvements in constructions and dispositions of components of such electronic cameras.
Heretofore, in electronic cameras as well as silver film cameras, covers and internal components are assembled and held in various ways, which are roughly classified into the following two types. In a first type, substantially all the internal components are assembled in single molded or rolled frame to form a unit, and two, i.e., front and rear, cover parts are fitted on the unit for protection thereof (this type being referred to as frame type). In a second type, the cover does not only serve as a mere protective cover, but it also has the role of a frame for supporting the internal components. More specifically, the cover is not a thin shell-like part but has a member for assembling and securing internal components thereto. The internal components are assembled to the cover itself (this type being referred to as cover type).
In the meantime, usual single-lens reflex electronic camera adopts internal layout, which considerably resemble those of silver film cameras of the same single-lens reflex type. More specifically, a movable mirror is used to split the incident light flux to split light fluxes and supplies them to an image pick-up device and a viewfinder. A penta-prism is provided at intermediate to the viewfinder. The eyepiece of the viewfinder is provided substantially at the center of the camera in the long dimension direction thereof. Also, instead of a film an image pick-up surface of the image pick-up device extends perpendicular to the image pick-up optical axis. The camera is used with a power supply battery, which is disposed such that it extends parallel with the film patrone, i.e., perpendicular to the camera body bottom.
In the electronic camera, unlike the conventional silver film camera, it is necessary, in addition to operation checks of various components, to make overall adjustment of the brightness of picked-up image, colors thereof and so forth after the photographing lens, image pick-up device, electric circuit board and other components have been assembled. This means that it is necessary that final confirmation of functions and overall adjustment can be made without fitting the cover. Otherwise, the assembling property is extremely deteriorated.
Regarding this demand, in the frame type the final confirmation of functions and overall adjustment can be made well after forming the unit by assembling the internal components in the single frame and before fitting the cover on the unit. In the second type, however, the components are assembled and mounted in either one of a plurality of cover parts, and some components are conceived by the cover, although this may depend on the shape of the cover. In such a case, it is considerably difficult to make final function confirmation and overall adjustment after the component have been assembled and mounted in the cover. Even if such confirmation and adjustment could be made, great care would be necessary in the adjustment of the component parts assembled in the cover to maintain the appearance of the cover without any damage thereto. Such care deteriorates the assembling property. Therefore, this cover type is unsuited for the electronic camera which has an electronic image pick-up system, although it poses no problem with the silver salt film camera.
In the meantime, there is a strong demand for size reduction of electronic cameras or like portable units. In view of this demand, the frame type is disadvantageous in that the framework structure that is formed by the frame member leads to a volume increase. So far as the size reduction demand is concerned, the cover type is advantageous in that no exclusive frame is unnecessary. However, as described before, the cover type is disadvantageous from the standpoint of the final function confirmation and overall adjustment. In the long run, neither type can meet the two demands for the electronic camera, i.e., readiness of final function confirmation and overall adjustment and size reduction.
Regarding the internal layout of the camera, the electronic camera tends to have a greater volume than the silver film camera because of the presence of the image pick-up device and a processing system therefor. Particularly, since the electric circuit board obviously has a large area, the volume of the electronic camera would be greater without doubt than the silver film camera when the same component layout as therefor is adopted, deteriorating the portability and convenience of handling.
Specifically, there is a trend for increasing depth or thickness of camera. That is, in the electronic camera, an image monitor display (for instance an LCD display) which is often mounted on the camera body in order to provide utmost simultaneous character, is provided together with the viewfinder eyepiece on the rear surface of the camera. With the provision of the image monitor display on the rear surface of the camera, the depth or thickness of the camera is increased in correspondence to the thickness of the LCD of the display. This may result in inconvenience of holding the camera or deterioration of the sense of griping the camera in the photography, which may cause swinging of the camera.
In a further aspect, a penta-prism which is usually used in the single-lens reflex electronic camera, is a factor of increasing the height of the camera. By purely replacing the penta-prism with a mirror system or the like for reducing the camera height, however, the camera depth or thickness is increased in corresponding to the length of the optical path.
As shown above, in the electronic camera it is necessary, in addition to reduce the volume or the camera, to provide adequate balance of the width, depth and height dimensions. In this respect, no substantial considerations have been paid.
The present invention seeks to solve the above problems inherent in the prior art electronic camera, and it has an object of providing a electronic camera, which is reduced in size, convenient to handle, permits ready final function confirmation and overall adjustment, and has excellent assembling property.
Specifically, an object of the present invention is to provides an electronic camera which permits effective utilization an upper space in the camera body, permits reduction of the depth or thickness of the camera body.
Another object of the present invention is to provides an electronic camera which is free from blocking of strobo light by any camera part and has a strobo light emission part such as to permit effective utilization of the dead pace.
Another object of the present invention is to provides an electronic camera which provides stable state of support utilizing the bottom surface of the camera body and permits effective utilization of the inner space of the camera body adjacent the bottom thereof.
Other object of the present invention is to provides an electronic camera which ensures stability of photographing and can effectively prevent swinging of the camera.
Still other object of the present invention is to provides an electronic camera which permits reduction of the depth or thickness of the camera body.
Further object of the present invention is to provides an electronic camera which internally has a main capacitor for strobo and a battery for camera power supply and permits reduction of the height of the camera body.
Still further object of the present invention is to provides an electronic camera which can hold the main capacitor for strobo with sufficient space efficiency and in a stable state.
Other object of the present invention is to provides an electronic camera which readily permits size reduction of internal components.
Still other object of the present invention is to provides an electronic camera which improves efficiency of mounting electric circuit boards and permits a camera frame to a cover without generation of strain.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic camera comprising a beam splitter for splitting a light beam having passed through an image pick-up device into a plurality of split light beams, an image pick-up device for converting one of the split light beams emitted from the beam splitter to an electric signal, and an optical viewfinder for using another one of the split light beams emitted from the beam splitter for visually recognizing an image, the eyepiece of the optical viewfinder being disposed on an upper part of the rear surface of the camera body adjacent the left end thereof.
In the electronic camera having the above construction, the viewfinder optical path is bent to the left end. Thus, unlike the case where the viewfinder is disposed on the center of the top or rear surface of the camera body, the upper space in the camera body is not divided by the optical viewfinder. It is thus possible to make effective use of the upper space for disposing electric circuit boards or the like. Thus, it is possible to reduce the depth or thickness of the camera body, compared to the case where the viewfinder eyepiece is disposed at the center of the camera body top or rear surface. By disposing the photographing lens at the left end of the camera body, it is no longer necessary to bend the viewfinder optical path at an intermediate position, but doing so gives rise to the problem of deteriorating the weight balance.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic camera comprising a camera body having a grip to be gripped by a gripping hand, a substantially cylindrical projection projecting from the camera body along a photographing axis and accommodating a photographing optical system, and an image pick-up device for converting an image signal obtained through a photographing optical system to an electrical signal, wherein as pivotally erectable strobo is provided on top of the projection.
With the strobo light emitting part thus provided on top of the projection, which projects from the camera body and has an internal image pick-up optical system, unlike the case where the strobo light emitting part is disposed on the camera body, in strobo photographing the strobo light is not blocked by the cover part of the photographing optical system, i.e., the projection. It is thus possible to effectively utilize the dead space.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the electronic camera according to the second aspect, wherein the bottom surface of the projection partly has a flat surface flush with a flat part of the bottom surface of the camera body.
With the bottom surface of the projection having a flat surface flush with a flat part of the bottom surface of the camera body, the inner space of the camera body adjacent the bottom thereof is increased, thus permitting a large trapezoidal electric circuit board to be disposed inside the bottom of the camera body. In addition, by utilizing the bottom of the camera body as support, which has an increased flat part area, it is possible to improve the stability.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the electronic camera according to one of the second or third aspect, wherein the projection has recesses formed such that they extend in the longitudinal direction of the projection and correspond in position to fingers of the gripping hand gripping the projection.
With the camera body having the projection, in which the image pick-up lens is provided, from there gravity relation it is necessary to hold the projection with the gripping hand. According to the fourth aspect, the recesses formed on opposite sides of the projection along the longitudinal direction thereof, it is possible to stabilize the state of the camera in photographing and present swinging.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic camera comprising a beam splitter for splitting a light beam having passed through an image pick-up device into a plurality of split light beams, an image pick-up device for converting one of the split light beams emitted from the beam splitter to an electric signal, and an optical viewfinder for using another one of the split light beams emitted from the beam splitter for visually recognizing an image, wherein the image pick-up device has an image pick-up surface at an angle other than right angles to the optical axis of the photographing lens.
With the image pick-up surface disposed at an angle other than right angles to the optical axis of the photographing lens, it is possible to reduce the depth or thickness of the camera body in correspondence to the thickness of the image pick-up device.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic camera comprising an image pick-up device for converting an image obtained via a photographing optical system to an electric signal, a strobo and a camera body accommodating an elongate battery as camera power supply disposed to be substantially parallel to the rear and bottom surfaces of the camera body, wherein an elongate main capacitor for the strobo is disposed such that its longitudinal direction is substantially parallel to the long side dimension of the battery.
Since the main capacitor for the strobo has an elongate shape similar to the battery as the camera power supply, it is possible to reduce the height of the camera body by disposing the main capacitor such as to be substantially parallel to the battery and extend in the width direction of the camera body.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided the electronic camera according to the sixth aspect, wherein the outer surface of a battery accommodating part for accommodating and holding the battery is formed with a main capacitor support part.
With the main capacitor held on the support formed on the outer surface of the battery accommodating part, unlike the usual case where the main capacitor is connected in a cantilever form to the electric circuit board, the capacitor can be held stably and can be prevented, with a simple structure, from being detached with breakage of lead lines due to such cause as vibration and shocks. In addition, since the main capacitor is similar in shape to the battery, it suits the battery accommodating part well, and the battery accommodating part suits the main capacitor support. It is thus possible to ensure satisfactory space efficiency. Furthermore, since the battery accommodating part utilizes a usual outer wall, it is possible to reduce cost.
According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic camera comprising a battery accommodating part for accommodating and holding a battery as a camera power supply, a cylindrical member accommodating a photographing lens, a beam splitter, and an image pick-up device.viewfinder assembly optical components of an optical viewfinder and an image pick-up device, wherein the battery accommodating part, the cylindrical member and the image pick-up device.viewfinder assembly are combined together to form a hybrid camera frame.
Since the three components are coupled together to form the hybrid camera frame for dispensing with an exclusive frame, it is possible to reduce the size of the internal component unit. In addition, by dispensing with an exclusive frame, it is possible to reduce cost and save space.
According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the electronic camera according to the eighth aspect, wherein a cover accommodates and protects the hybrid camera frame, an electric circuit board being disposed between the hybrid camera frame and the inner surface of the cover.
Since he inner surface of the cover is substantially flat and also the electric circuit board is also substantially flat, it is possible to readily dispose the electric circuit board between the inner cover surface and the hybrid camera frame and improve the mounting efficiency.
According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the electronic camera according to the ninth aspect, wherein the cover includes a plurality of cover parts, the hybrid camera frame being secured to one of the cover parts.
If the hybrid camera frame is coupled to a plurality of cover parts, it is possible that strain is generated due to relative dimensional errors to generate stress in the hybrid camera frame. With the hybrid camera frame coupled to only a single cover part, it is possible to reduce strain in the hybrid camera frame to relative dimensional errors and reduce deviations after the assembling.